Want to live in nerd paradise? Head to this state

I wouldn't say I'm a hard-core nerd, but I definitely lean that way. Yet I come from one of the least nerdy states in America (New York) and currently live in an even more nerd-barren land (North Carolina). That's the conclusion I drew from real-estate site Estately's just-released ranking of "The Nerdiest States in America."

If I wanted to live in true nerd nirvana, I'd move to Utah, which ranks No. 1 on the list. To escape nerddom completely, it looks like a move to the no-fun District of Columbia would be in order.

In creating their rankings, the nerds at Estately turned to Facebook and analyzed all those who had interests in the following 12 categories: "Star Trek: The Next Generation"; cosplay; Harry Potter; "Star Wars"; anime movies; Dungeons & Dragons; LARPing; "Doctor Who"; Fantasy lit; "Lord of the Rings"; Magic: The Gathering; and comic books. They examined people in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and compiled their listing on a per capita basis.

Utah took top honors in half of the categories and came in second in two others, although it ranked kind of low on the D&D meter. If that's your thing, consider moving to Alaska. It came in first in that category and second overall. Combine that with the fact that it's the safest place to be when the zombie apocalypse hits, and it starts to look like a pretty appealing place to live -- if you don't mind 364 days of winter.

Conversely, D.C. came in dead last on nine of the nerd metrics, including, surprisingly, LARPing, which some might consider the daily job of the politicians who populate the district.

Among the conclusions Estately took away from its research were that "California is the only place in the West where you can go to a 'Harry Potter' movie and not sit behind a grown woman in a wizard hat" and that "the South is a virtual nerd desert, and a damn hard place to get a game of D&D going." Just my luck.